Brush, brush, brush your teeth! We spent this week talking about our pearly whites and how we can keep them healthy.





We practiced our brushing skills on the babies. No cavities were found!



We colored large tooth outlines with markers.

Our discussion of healthy teeth included a talk about healthy foods and not-so-healthy foods.
Everyone picked some healthy foods from our magazine cut-outs.












We sorted photos, looking for pictures of ourselves to add to our portfolios.






Dress up is one of the favorite areas for many of our friends. It's fun to try on a new identity and role play.

Penguins & Polar Bears

Penguins and Polar Bears were two popular animals of discussion this week. We already knew many facts about penguins and shared those at group time.
We practiced balancing eggs on our feet like penguin parents!

We stamped penguins at the art table and painted them at the easels.



Our room has been a sea of blue, white, and black these last few weeks of wintry themes.







For math practice, we measured the heights of penguins and polar bears.We sequenced a penguin family from largest to smallest.




Ms. Lois stopped by to share more pictures with us from her trip to Romania. The children there received some fun Christmas presents thanks to the generosity of the LAP families.






We continue to work together, practicing sharing and problem solving. We are growing so quickly, both our bodies and our brains. School provides a place to try new things and develop social skills. Learning is fun at L.A.P.!

The Science of ICE

Ice is so very interesting when you make it at home with lots of treasures inside.


We used warm salt water and eye droppers to melt our sculptures and retrieve the prizes frozen inside. This gave us a great opportunity to talk about the different states of water.

We compared how long it took to melt the thinner forms versus the thicker forms.






At grouptime we did a fun experiment that lasted all three days of school this week. We also made a long list of the things we now know about ice. Every friend shared a thought with the group.







We used tiny artists palettes at the art table with tempera to create colorful paintings. The flannel board was a backdrop to wonderful storytelling by several children.

It was a week of Science and Language enrichment. Thanks for sending in those ice forms!

Everything's New Again!

Welcome back and welcome to a new year of fun and learning at L.A.P.!

We had the perfect weather to introduce our new theme for this year - WINTER!
Snowmen, snowflakes, "surprise" winter pictures under blue watercolors - all our artistic endeavors were a hearld to the first snow fall of the season.
Our friends found many "old" treasures like puzzles and legos back on the tables. We made fancy meals in the kitchen area and shared the goodies with everyone who sat down.
Our playdough was snowy white with a sparkle of glitter. We used snowmen and snowflake cookie cutters as well as our imaginations to create many wintry items. Working with dough strengthens our fingers and hands to prepare us for writing later on.

Merry Christmas

Our last week of school was spent making and wrapping gifts, learning about the Nativity, and celebrating the birth of Jesus.






We were busy little elves and so happy at our work.










We sang Happy Birthday for Baby Jesus and all shared in cake on our last school day.





Our books centered on the Nativity and we used a child-friendly set to share the story over and over. We talked about Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, and Kings as we imagined the first Christmas night.
Everyone was very attentive and involved during story time each day.












All our efforts of creating and wrapping were sent home. We hope you enjoy our "kitchen" gift this year. (We told our friends it was a trivet for "hot pots", to protect the tabletop.)







Hopes are high for a wonderful Christmas holiday and we
feel sure that this expectation will be more than met.





















We modeled our birthday crowns during our party on Wednesday.






Have a blessed and safe Christmas and we'll see you in 2010!

Reindeer Games

December weather may have shortened our week, but not our fun! Ms. Amy and Ms. Martha (Cole's grandma) helped us to trace our hands for our reindeer antlers and deftly painted on red noses.


Santa need not fear for any help to guide his sleigh, we've got him covered.


In addition to all the talk of what we're Getting, we're also focusing on what we can Give. We're making cards and gifts for those we love.

We have truly grown in our ability to share our space and materials with each other. We are kind with our words and actions. We have been so "good" this year!


Ready for take off!

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year, especially in a class of active, excited three year olds.


We've begun our celebration of the season with stars and trees made from a most familiar shape - the triangle.


We made lovely candles (that can't burn us) for the window.


We painted with sticky, shiny corn syrup to make a sting of Christmas lights.



Our fine motor skills were exercised and working hard this week.


We even "wrote" the word TREE with stamps. We are recognizing that words are made up of letters and are able to read many names from our name cards at group time.



We hammered in our sensory table - Santa's workshop has nothing on us!

Our first ornament of the holiday was made from fruit loops to share with the birds (if we didn't eat it ourselves on the way home).

More excitement to follow these next few weeks - we can't wait!